QUOTES BY TOPIC

PLAY: King Henry V ACT/SCENE: 2.4 SPEAKER: Exeter CONTEXT: From him, and thus he greets your Majesty:
He wills you, in the name of God almighty,
That you divest yourself and lay apart
The borrowed glories that, by gift of heaven,
By law of nature and of nations, ’longs
To him and to his heirs—namely, the crown
And all wide-stretchèd honours that pertain
By custom and the ordinance of times
Unto the crown of France. That you may know
’Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim
Picked from the wormholes of long-vanished days
Nor from the dust of old oblivion raked,
He sends you this most memorable line. DUTCH: Opdat gij weten moogt,
Dat dit geen slinksche, wraakb’re vord’ring is,
Ontdekt in ‘t molm van lang vervlogen dagen,
Gerakeld uit vergetelheids oud stof. MORE:
Ordinance of times=Law of centuries
‘longs=Belongs
Sinister=Unfair, wrong; deceitful
Awkward=Perverse, unbecoming

Compleat:
Awkward=Averechts
Aukward=Averechts, verkeerd
Sinister (or unlawful)=Onbetaamelyk, ongeoorloofd Topics: claim, value, deceit, honour

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.7
SPEAKER: Orleans
CONTEXT:
CONSTABLE
By my faith, sir, but it is; never anybody saw it but his lackey. ‘Tis a hooded valour, and when it appears, it will bate.
ORLÉANS
Ill will never said well.
CONSTABLE
I will cap that proverb with “There is flattery in friendship.”
ORLÉANS
And I will take up that with “Give the devil his due.”
CONSTABLE
Well placed; there stands your friend for the devil. Have at the very eye of that proverb with “A pox of the devil.”
ORLÉANS
You are the better at proverbs, by how much “A fool’s bolt is soon shot.”
CONSTABLE
You have shot over.
ORLÉANS
‘Tis not the first time you were overshot.

DUTCH:
Gij zijt in spreekwoorden de baas, en waarom? Een
narrenpijl is ras verschoten./
De pijl van een dwaas is spoedig afgeschoten

MORE:

Proverb: Ill will never speaks well (1566)
Proverb: There is flattery in friendship
A series of proverbs in this quote. “Give the devil his due”, “There is flattery in friendship”, “A pox of the devil” and “A fool’s bolt is soon shot”.

A fool’s bolt is soon shot meaning fools act rashly, alluding to bowmen in battle. Good soldiers take aim, foolish soldiers shoot at random.
Lackey (or lacquey)=Footboy, servant
Hooded valour and it will bate=Allusion to falconry; falcons are kept hooded when at rest and when unhooded they ‘bait’ (beat or flap the wings).

Compleat:
Lackey (or footman)=een Lyfknecht, lakey
Hooded=Gekaperd, bekaperd, gekapt
Overshoot=Voorbyschieten.
To overshoot the mark=Het doel voorbyschieten, voorby ‘t merk schieten
I have overshot myself=Ik heb my vergist, het is my ontschooten

Topics: proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised, still in use, haste, caution

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Montjoy
CONTEXT:
Thus says my king: “Say thou to Harry of England, though we seemed dead, we did but sleep. Advantage is a better soldier than rashness. Tell him we could have rebuked him at Harfleur, but that we thought not good to bruise an injury till it were full ripe. Now we speak upon our cue, and our voice is imperial. England shall repent his folly, see his
weakness, and admire our sufferance. Bid him therefore consider of his ransom, which must proportion the losses we have borne, the subjects we have lost, the disgrace we have digested, which, in weight to reanswer, his pettiness would bow under.

DUTCH:
Ofschoon wij dood schenen, wij sliepen slechts;
omzichtigheid is een beter krijgsman dan overijling.

MORE:

Sufferance=A bearing with patience; moderation, patience
Advantage=Opportunity
Proportion=Be in proportion with
Digested=Stomached
Weight=Equal weight
Reanswer=Compensate, answer for

Compleat:
Sufferance=Verdraagzaamheid, toegeevendheid
To digest (put up with)=Verdraagen

Topics: patience, conflict

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
KING HENRY
All things are ready if our minds be so.
WESTMORELAND
Perish the man whose mind is backward now!

DUTCH:
Wij zijn geheel gereed, zoo ‘t hart het is.

MORE:

Topics: wellbeing, emotion and mood, preparation

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Canterbury
CONTEXT:
Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose
Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,
The air, a chartered libertine, is still,
And the mute wonder lurketh in men’s ears
To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences;
So that the art and practic part of life
Must be the mistress to this theoric;
Which is a wonder how his Grace should glean it,
Since his addiction was to courses vain,
His companies unlettered, rude, and shallow,

DUTCH:
Waarlijk, als hij spreekt,
Is zelfs de lucht, de vrije woest’ling, stil,
En stom verbazen loert in ieders oor
Om zijner reed’nen honingzeem te buiten

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Proverb: To cut the Gordian knot

Courses=Habits, way of life, conduct
Chartered=Privileged
Art=Practical skill (the practic part of life)
Theoric=Theory
Gordian knot: Intricate/complex knot. Reference to Gordius (“De knoop doorhakken” also alludes to the Gordian knot.)

Compleat:
The Gordian knot=de Gordiaansche knoop (doorhakken)

Topics: still in use, proverbs and idioms, custom, leadership

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.7
SPEAKER: Orleans
CONTEXT:
CONSTABLE
Just, just; and the men do sympathize with the mastiffs in robustious and rough coming on, leaving their wits with their wives. And then give them great meals of beef and iron and steel, they will eat like wolves and fight like devils.
ORLÉANS
Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef.
CONSTABLE
Then shall we find tomorrow they have only stomachs to eat and none to fight. Now is it time to arm. Come, shall we about it?

DUTCH:
Ja, maar bij die Engelschen is het rundvleesch nu verduiveld
schaarsch.

MORE:

Robustious=Violent
Give=If you give
Shrewdly=Grievously, intensely, highly, very much
Stomachs=Inclination to, appetite for

Compleat:
Shrewdly (very much)=Sterk
To stomach=Kroppen

Topics: preparation, conflict

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Pistol
CONTEXT:

Fortune is Bardolph’s foe and frowns on him,
For he hath stolen a pax and hangèd must he be.
A damnèd death!
Let gallows gape for dog, let man go free,
And let not hemp his windpipe suffocate.
But Exeter hath given the doom of death
For pax of little price.
Therefore go speak—the duke will hear thy voice—
And let not Bardolph’s vital thread be cut
With edge of penny cord and vile reproach.
Speak, Captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.

DUTCH:
Fortuin is Bardolfs vijandin, ziet norsch;
Hij stal zich een monstrans en moet nu hangen.
Een vloekb’re dood!
Voor honden gaap’ de galg, de mensch zij vrij,
En hennep mag zijn gorgel niet verstikken.
Maar Exeter deed de uitspraak van den dood
Voor voddigen monstrans.

MORE:
Doom=Judgment. (Doom (or ‘dome’) was a statute or law (doombooks were codes of laws); related to the English suffix -dom, originally meaning jurisdiction. Shakespeare is credited for first using doom to mean death and destruction in Sonnet 14.)

Compleat:
Doom=Vonnis, oordeel, verwyzing
A heavy doom=een zwaar vonnis

Topics: fate/destiny, offence, punishment, judgment

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
If we are marked to die, we are enough
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s will, I pray thee wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.

DUTCH:
Bij Jupiter, ik heb geen dorst naar goud,
En vraag niet, wie er op mijn kosten teert.

MORE:

Admiration=Wonder
Prating=Prattling, chattering
Coxcomb=Fool (From fool’s cap)
Meet=Appropriate

Compleat:
Admiration=Verwondering
To prate=Praaten
Coxcomb=Een haanekam; een nar, uilskuiken
An ignorant coxcomb=Een onweetende zotskap
Mee

Topics: proverbs and idioms, sill in use, honour

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Hostess
CONTEXT:
BOY
Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master and your hostess. He is very sick and would to bed.—Good Bardolph, put thy face between his sheets, and do the office of a warming-pan. Faith, he’s very ill.
BARDOLPH
Away, you rogue!
HOSTESS
By my troth, he’ll yield the crow a pudding one of these days. The king has killed his heart. Good husband, come home presently.

DUTCH:
Waarachtig, hij wordt dezer dagen een gebraad voor
de kraaien; de koning heeft zijn hart gedood

MORE:

Proverb: To make the crow a pudding (c. 1598)
Yield the crow a pudding=Feed the crows after his death

Compleat:
To give the crow a pudding=Sterven

Topics: proverbs and idioms, death, nature

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER:
CONTEXT:
PISTOL
Discuss unto me: art thou officer or art thou base, common, and popular?
KING HENRY
I am a gentleman of a company.
PISTOL
Trail’st thou the puissant pike?
KING HENRY
Even so. What are you?
PISTOL
As good a gentleman as the emperor.

DUTCH:
Geef mij verklaring, zijt gij officier?
Of zijt gij laag, gering en van het volk?

MORE:

CITED IN E&W LAW: Dyson Holdings Ltd v Fox [1975] EWCA Civ 8 (17 October 1975)/[1976] QB 503, [1975] EWCA Civ 8
“…in the sense in which it would be used by a man who is “base, common and popular”, to use Shakespeare’s words in Henry V, Act IV, Scene I; quoted by Sir Raymond Evershed, Member of the Rolls, in this context in Langdon v. Horton (1951) 1 K.B. at page 669; or in modern words, by the ordinary man in the street, see Brook v. Wollams (1949) 2 K.B. at page 308 by Lord Justice Cohen.”

Puissant=Mighty, powerful
Base= Of low station, of mean account, i.e. base metal

Compleat:
A base fellow=Een slechte vent, oolyke boef
Base=Ondergeschikt
Puissant=Machtig, groot van vermogen

Topics: cited in law, status, order and society

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
Now, if these men have defeated the law and outrun native punishment, though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to fly from God. War is His beadle, war is His vengeance, so that here men are punished for before-breach of the king’s laws in now the king’s quarrel. Where they feared the death, they have borne life away; and where they would be safe, they perish. Then, if they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty of their damnation than he was before guilty of those impieties for the which they are now visited. Every subject’s duty is the king’s, but every subject’s soul is his own. Therefore should every soldier in the wars do as every sick man in his bed: wash every mote out of his conscience.

DUTCH:
De dienst van iederen onderdaan is des konings, maar de ziel van iederen onderdaan is zijn eigene. Daarom moest ieder soldaat in den oorlog doen, wat ieder kranke in zijn bed doet: zijn geweten rein wasschen van ieder stofjen.

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Out-run=Escaped
Native punishment=Punishment in their own country
Unprovided=Not properly prepared
Before-breach=A breach committed in former times
Beadle=Official responsible for punishment, whipping

Compleat:
Unprovided=Onvoorien, onverzorgd.
To take one unprovided=Iemand verrassen
Beadle=Een gerechtsdienaar, boode, deurwaarder.
A beadle of beggars=Een verjaager van bedelaars, luizevanger

Topics: guilt, debt/obligation, punishment, justice, offence

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Canterbury
CONTEXT:
Therefore doth heaven divide
The state of man in diverse functions,
Setting endeavor in continual motion,
To which is fixèd as an aim or butt
Obedience; for so work the honeybees,
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king and officers of sorts,
Where some like magistrates correct at home,
Others like merchants venture trade abroad,
Others like soldiers armèd in their stings
Make boot upon the summer’s velvet buds,
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent royal of their emperor,

DUTCH:
Zoo werken ook de bijen,
Diertjens, die door natuur aan groote staten
Voor ord’lijk doen als voorbeeld zijn gesteld

MORE:

Act=Law
King=The Queen was thought to be a male
Sorts=Ranks
Make boot upon=Plunder

Compleat:
Boot=Toegift, winst
Boot-haling=Roof, vrybuit

Burgersdijk notes:
Zoo werken ook de bijën. Eene dergegelijke vergelijking met een bijënstaat komt voor in het toen
veelgelezen werk van Lyly: „Euphues and his England” (1580). — Ook in het vierde boek van Virgilius’ Georgica zijn verscheiden overeenkomstige beschouwingen te vinden.

Topics: order/society, nature

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
The mercy that was quick in us but late
By your own counsel is suppressed and killed.
You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy,
For your own reasons turn into your bosoms,
As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.
—See you, my princes and my noble peers,
These English monsters. My Lord of Cambridge here,
You know how apt our love was to accord
To furnish him with all appurtenants
Belonging to his honor, and this man
Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspired,
And sworn unto the practices of France,
To kill us here in Hampton; to the which
This knight, no less for bounty bound to us
Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn.

DUTCH:
Wat vroeger in ons van genade leefde,
Werd door uw eigen raad verstikt, gedood.

MORE:

Proverb: A man may cause his own dog to bite him

Quick=Alive
Accord=Agree
Appurtenants=Belongings
Lightly=Casually
Practices=Plots

Compleat:
Quick=Levendig
Accord=Eendragt, toestemming, verdrag, overeekomst
Appurtenance (appertinances)=Toebehooren, toebehoorigheden; afhangkelykheid

Topics: proverbs and idioms, conspiracy

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Fluellen
CONTEXT:
PISTOL
Bardolph, a soldier firm and sound of heart and
of buxom valor, hath, by cruel Fate and giddy
Fortune’s furious fickle wheel, that goddess blind,
that stands upon the rolling restless stone
FLUELLEN
By your patience, Aunchient Pistol, Fortune is painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to signify to you that Fortune is blind; and she is painted also with a wheel to signify to you, which is the moral of it, that she is turning and inconstant, and mutability and variation; and her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls and rolls and rolls. In good truth, the poet makes a most excellent description of it. Fortune is an excellent moral.

DUTCH:
Fortuin wordt plind gemalen met een pand voor haar oogen om u te betuiten, dat Fortuin blind is.

MORE:
Proverb: Fortune is blind
Proverb: Fortune is fickle
Proverb: Fortune’s wheel is every turning

Fortune is an excellent moral: provides an excellent lesson
Painted with a wheel=Attribute of Fortune, as the emblem of mutability
Schmidt:
Aunchient=Fluellen’s Welsh pronunciation ofancient (ensign)

Compleat:
The wheel (or vicissitudes) of fortune=Het Rad van Avontuuren

Topics: fate/destiny, uncertainty

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
QUEEN ISABEL
Our gracious brother, I will go with them.
Haply a woman’s voice may do some good,
When articles too nicely urged be stood on.
KING HENRY
Yet leave our cousin Katherine here with us.
She is our capital demand, comprised
Within the fore-rank of our articles.

DUTCH:
Doorluchte broeder, ik wil met hen gaan.
Wellicht bewerkt een vrouwestem iets goeds,
Als eenige eisch te sterk wordt aangedrongen.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Haply=Perhaps
Capital=Chief, principal
Nicely=Putiliously, scrupulously
Forerank=Priority, first rank, front

Compleat:
Haply=Misschien
To be nice in something=Keurig

Topics: civility, manipulation, achievement

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Boy
CONTEXT:
For indeed three such antics do not amount to a man: for Bardolph, he is white-livered and red-faced, by the means whereof he faces it out but fights not; for Pistol, he hath a killing tongue and a quiet sword, by the means whereof he breaks words and keeps whole weapons; for Nym, he hath heard that men of few words are the best men, and therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest he should be thought a coward, but his few bad words are matched with as few good deeds, for he never broke any man’s head but his own, and that was against a post when he was drunk. They will steal anything and call it purchase.

DUTCH:
Pistool, die heeft een moorddadige tong en
een vreedzaam zwaard; en daarom breekt hij woorden
den nek, maar houdt zijn wapens heel

MORE:

Antic=Buffoon, practising odd gesticulations
White-livered=Cowardly (White livers used to signify cowardice. Hence lily-livered (Macbeth, 5.3) and milk-livered (King Lear, 4.2), both compounds coined by Shakespeare)
Face it out=To get through one’s business by effrontery
Scorn=To disdain, to refuse or lay aside with contempt
Words=Also in the sense of promises

Compleat:
To scorn=Verachten, verfooijen
White-livered=Een die er altijd bleek uitziet; een bleek-neus, kwaadaardig, nydig
To face out=Iemand iets in ‘t gezigt staande houden

Topics: reputation, honour, language, promise

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Fluellen
CONTEXT:
GOWER
Why, ’tis a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now and then goes to the wars to grace himself at his return into London under the form of a soldier. And such fellows are perfect in the great commanders’ names, and they will learn you by rote where services were done—at such and such a sconce, at such a breach, at such a convoy; who came off bravely, who was shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy stood on. And this they con perfectly in the phrase of war, which they trick up with new-tuned oaths; and what a beard of the general’s cut and a horrid suit of the camp will do among foaming bottles and ale-washed wits is wonderful to be thought on. But you must learn to know such slanders of the age, or else you may be marvelously mistook.
FLUELLEN
I tell you what, Captain Gower. I do perceive he is not the man that he would gladly make show to the world he is. If I find a hole in his coat, I will tell him my mind.

DUTCH:
Ik wil u wat zeggen, oferste Gower; ik heb zeer choed gemerkt; hij is niet de man, dien hij gaarne aan de wereld zou laten zien dat hij is; als ik aan zijn rok een steek los vind, zal ik hem zeggen wat ik denk.

MORE:
New-tuned=Newly coined
Slanders=Disgraces
Onions:
Hole in his coat=A chink in his armour (opportunity to expose)

Topics: deceit, appearance, flaw/fault

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
Hath turned his balls to gun-stones, and his soul
Shall stand sore chargèd for the wasteful vengeance
That shall fly with them; for many a thousand widows
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands,
Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down,
And some are yet ungotten and unborn
That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin’s scorn.
But this lies all within the will of God,
To whom I do appeal, and in whose name
Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on,
To venge me as I may and to put forth
My rightful hand in a well-hallowed cause.
So get you hence in peace. And tell the Dauphin
His jest will savour but of shallow wit
When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.
—Convey them with safe conduct.—Fare you well.

DUTCH:
Gaat thans in vrede heen, en zegt den prins,
Dat niemand meer zijn scherts een scherts zal achten,
Als duizenden dra weenen, die nu lachten. —
Bezorgt hun vrijgeleide. — Vaart gij wel!

MORE:
Balls=Tennis balls
Gunstones=Cannonballs
Hallowed=Consecrated
Rightful=Lawful, legitimate
Savour=Have a particular smell; be of a particular nature (metaphorically)

Compleat:
Hallowed=Geheiligd, gewyd
Rightfull=Rechtmaatig, gerechtig
Savour=(smell) ruiken; (taste) smaaken

Topics: revenge, intellect, value, understanding

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Williams
CONTEXT:
I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle, for how can they charitably dispose of anything when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the king that led them to it, who to disobey were against all proportion of subjection.

DUTCH:
Nu, en als die menschen niet goed sterven, dan ziet het er donker uit voor den koning, die hen er toe gebracht
heeft, daar toch ongehoorzaamheid aan hem tegen
alle regels van onderdanigheid zou strijden.

MORE:

CITED IN US LAW:
In Re Taxman Clothing Company, Ine., 1991 Bankr. LEXIS 1659, at 1 (Katz, J.).

Topics: cited in law, justification, merit, justice

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Westmorland
CONTEXT:

NYM
The king is a good king, but it must be as it may.
He passes some humours and careers.
PISTOL
Let us condole the knight, for, lambkins, we will live.
BEDFORD
’Fore God, his Grace is bold to trust these traitors.
EXETER
They shall be apprehended by and by.
WESTMORELAND
How smooth and even they do bear themselves,
As if allegiance in their bosoms sat
Crownèd with faith and constant loyalty.
BEDFORD
The king hath note of all that they intend,
By interception which they dream not of.

DUTCH:
Wat doen zij zich eenvoudig, arg’loos voor,
Alsof de oprechtheid in hun boezem woonde,
Gekroond door liefde en ongekrenkte trouw.

MORE:

Passes humours=Indulges in strange tendencies
Careers=Short sprints, race
Smooth=unruffled, even, balanced
Hath note of=Is informed of
Interception=The stopping and seizing of something in its passage
Constant=Faithful

Compleat:
The humours=De humeuren van het lichaam; grillen
Humour (dispositon of the mind)=Humeur, of gemoeds gesteldheid

Topics: deceit, conspiracy, appearance, loyalty, betrayal

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Boy
CONTEXT:
I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart. But the saying is true: “The empty vessel makes the greatest sound.” Bardolph and Nym had ten times more valour than this roaring devil i’ th’ old play, that everyone may pare his nails with a wooden dagger, and they are both hanged, and so would this be if he durst steal any thing adventurously. I must stay with the lackeys with the luggage of our camp. The French might have a good prey of us if he knew of it, for there is none to guard it but boys.

DUTCH:
Van mijn leven heb ik zulk een volle stem niet hooren
komen uit een ledig hart; maar het zeggen is waar: in
holle vaten zit de meeste klank

MORE:

Proverb: Empty vessels sound most, empty vessels make the greatest sound (most noise)

Paring nails would have been an affront to the Devil, who chose not to pare his own (Malone)
Adventurously=Daringly, boldly
Luggage=Army baggage

Burgersdijk notes:
Dan deze brullende duivel. In de oude moraliteiten zag de duivel er wel vreeselijk uit en brulde
geweldig, maar hij was toch zeer laf en liet zich door den hansworst met zijn houten zwaard ongestraft op de vingers slaan.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, integrity, honesty

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.8
SPEAKER: Williams
CONTEXT:
FLUELLEN
My liege, here is a villain and a traitor, that, look your Grace, has struck the glove which your Majesty is take out of the helmet of Alençon.
WILLIAMS
My liege, this was my glove; here is the fellow of it. And he that I gave it to in change promised to wear it in his cap. I promised to strike him if he did. I met this man with my glove in his cap, and I have been as good as my word.
FLUELLEN
Your Majesty, hear now, saving your Majesty’s manhood, what an arrant, rascally, beggarly, lousy knave it is. I hope your Majesty is pear me testimony and witness, and will avouchment that this is the glove of Alençon that your Majesty is give me, in your conscience now.

DUTCH:
Ik ontmoette dezen man met mijn handschoen op zijn muts,
en ik ben zoo goed als mijn woord geweest.

MORE:

Proverb: An honest man is as good as his word

Avouchment=Avouch, testify

Compleat:
Rascally=Schelmsch, schelmachtig
An arrant knave=Een overgegeven guit
To avouch=Vastelyk verzekeren, bewaarheden, zyn onschuld doen blyken
To bear testimony=Tegen iemand getuigen
To bear witness=Getuigenis geeven, getuigen

Topics: proverbs and idioms

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
WILLIAMS
You pay him then. That’s a perilous shot out of an elder gun, that a poor and private displeasure can do against a monarch. You may as well go about to turn the sun to ice with fanning in his face with a peacock’s feather. You’ll “never trust his word after.” Come, ’tis a foolish saying.
KING HENRY
Your reproof is something too round. I should be angry with you if the time were convenient.
WILLIAMS
Let it be a quarrel between us, if you live.

DUTCH:
Uw uitval is wel wat al te heftig; ik zou boos op u
zijn, als de tijd dit toeliet.

MORE:
Perilous=Dangerous
Elder-gun=Gun made of elderwood
Round=Direct, blunt, plain speaking

Topics: anger, time

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
KING HENRY
Even as men wracked upon a sand, that look to be washed off the next tide.
BATES
He hath not told his thought to the king?
KING HENRY
No. Nor it is not meet he should, for, though I speak it to you, I think the king is but a man as I am. The violet smells to him as it doth to me. The element shows to him as it doth to me. All his senses have but human conditions. His ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man, and though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing. Therefore, when he sees reason of fears as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as ours are. Yet, in reason, no man should possess him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his army.

DUTCH:
Want, al zeg ik dit tot u, ik geloof, dat de koning maar een mensch is zooals ik ben. Het viooltjen ruikt voor hem evenals voor mij

MORE:
Wracked=Wrecked
The element=The sky (Latin clementum ignis as a name for the starry sphere – or with a mixture of the sense of ‘air’)
Meet=Appropriate

Compleat:
Wrack (or shipwrack)=Schipbreuk
Affections=Emotions, feelings
Stoop=Another allusion to falconry. The hawk soars (mounts) and then descends (stoops)
To go to wrack=Verlooren gaan, te gronde gaan
Wrack ( the part of the ship that is perished and cast a shoar, belonging to the King)=Wrak van een verongelukt Schip
Wracked=Aan stukken gestooten, te gronde gegaan
Meet=Dienstig

Topics: nature, order/society, life

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.8
SPEAKER: Fluellen
CONTEXT:
WILLIAMS
I will none of your money.
FLUELLEN
It is with a good will. I can tell you it will serve you to mend your shoes. Come, wherefore should you be so pashful? Your shoes is not so good. ‘Tis a good silling, I warrant you, or I will change it.

DUTCH:

Ik wil uw geld niet.
Fluellen. Het is met een goeden wil; ik kan u zeggen, dat het
u dienen kan voor het lappen van uw schoenen

MORE:

Pashful=Bashful
Silling=Shilling

Mend your shoes: Shoes being an object of attention to the common soldier and most liable to be worn out (Malone).

Topics: money, dignity, poverty and wealth

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Boy
CONTEXT:
Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would
give all my fame for a pot of ale, and safety.

DUTCH:
Ik wenschte, dat ik in een bierhuis zat, in Londen!
Ik zou al mijn roem voor een kan bier geven en voor
veiligheid.

MORE:

Topics: adversity, security, life

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Fluellen
CONTEXT:
PISTOL
I take thy groat in earnest of revenge.
FLUELLEN
If I owe you anything, I will pay you in cudgels. You shall be a woodmonger and buy nothing of me but cudgels. God be wi’ you and keep you and heal your pate.

DUTCH:
Als ik u iets schuldig ben, zal ik u petalen in knuppels; gij moet in hout gaan doen en niets koopen van mij dan knuppels.

MORE:

Groat=Coin valued at four pence
Earnest=Handsel, part paid beforehand as a pledge, monetary pledge, down payment

Compleat:
An earnest=Een pand, onderpand
To give in earnest=Te bande geeven
Handsel, Hansel=Handgift
To give/take hansel=Handgift geeven/ontvangen
To hansel something=een ding voor ‘t eerst gebruiken
I took hansel before my shop was quite open=Ik ontving handgeld voor dat myn winkel nog ter deeg open was.
Cudgel=Knods, knuppel
To cross cudgels=’t Geweer neerleggen, ‘t gewonnen geeven
To cudgel one’s brains about a thing=Zyn hoofd ergens méde breeken. Cudgelled=Geknuppeld

Topics: debt/obligation, duty, business

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
GREY
Sir, you show great mercy if you give him life
After the taste of much correction.
KING HENRY
Alas, your too much love and care of me
Are heavy orisons ‘gainst this poor wretch.
If little faults proceeding on distemper
Shall not be winked at, how shall we stretch our eye
When capital crimes, chewed, swallowed, and digested,
Appear before us? We’ll yet enlarge that man,
Though Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, in their dear care
And tender preservation of our person,
Would have him punished. And now to our French causes.
Who are the late commissioners?

DUTCH:
Indien men ‘t oog hij dronkenschaps-vergrijpen
Niet sluiten mag, hoe moet men ‘t openspalken,
Zoo hoogverraad, gekauwd, geslikt, verteerd,
Zich voor ons opdoet.

MORE:

Proverb: To wink at small faults
Proverb: He that corrects not small faults cannot control great ones
Proverb: To look through one’s fingers

Correction=Punishment
Heavy orisons=Weighty pleas
Distemper=Illness, confusion (esp. drunkenness)
Stretch our eye=Open our eyes

Compleat:
Correction=Verbetering, tuchtiging, berisping
Orisons=Zekere geboden
Distemper: (disease)=Krankheid, ziekte, kwaal; (troubles of the state)=Wanorder in den Staat

Topics: proverbs and idioms, punishment, mercy, justice

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Fluellen
CONTEXT:
FLUELLEN
So. In the name of Jesu Christ, speak fewer. It is the greatest admiration in the universal world when the true and aunchient prerogatifes and laws of the wars is not kept. If you would take the pains but to examine the wars of Pompey the Great, you shall find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle toddle nor pibble babble in Pompey’s camp. I warrant you, you shall find the ceremonies of the wars and the cares of it and the forms of it and the sobriety of it and the modesty of it to be otherwise.
GOWER
Why, the enemy is loud. You hear him all night.
FLUELLEN
If the enemy is an ass and a fool and a prating coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we should also, look you, be an ass and a fool and a prating coxcomb, in your own conscience, now?

DUTCH:
Als de vijand een ezel is en een nar en een snappende windmaker, is het choed, denkt gij, dat wij ook zouden zijn, ziet gij, een ezel en een nar en een snappende windmaker? Op uw geweten af, spreek!

MORE:
Admiration=Wonder
Prating=Prattling, chattering
Coxcomb=Fool (From fool’s cap)
Meet=Appropriate

Compleat:
Admiration=Verwondering
To prate=Praaten
Coxcomb=Een haanekam; een nar, uilskuiken
An ignorant coxcomb=Een onweetende zotskap
Meet=Dienstig

Topics: preparation, intellect, value, conflict

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Dauphin
CONTEXT:
Well, ’tis not so, my lord high constable;
But though we think it so, it is no matter:
In cases of defence ’tis best to weigh
The enemy more mighty than he seems:
So the proportions of defence are fill’d;
Which of a weak or niggardly projection
Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting
A little cloth.

DUTCH:
Men achte, wordt verdediging beraamd,
Den vijand immer sterker dan hij schijnt;
Haar vollen eisch krijgt dan de weerbaarheid,
-Die, op een zwakke en kaar’ge wijs ontworpen,
Gelijk een vrek, om luttel stofs te sparen,
Heel ‘t kleed bederft.

MORE:
Projection=To project an opponent as large or small in scale
Niggardly=Miserly

Topics: defence, caution, value

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Canterbury
CONTEXT:
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent royal of their emperor,
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
The singing masons building roofs of gold,
The civil citizens kneading up the honey,
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
The sad-eyed justice with his surly hum
Delivering o’er to executors pale
The lazy yawning drone. I this infer:
That many things, having full reference
To one consent, may work contrariously,
As many arrows loosèd several ways
Come to one mark, as many ways meet in one town,
As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea,
As many lines close in the dial’s center,
So may a thousand actions, once afoot,
End in one purpose and be all well borne
Without defeat.

DUTCH:
Dat vele dingen, die op sathenstemming
Berekend zijn, verschillend werken kunnen;

MORE:

Dial=Sundial
Mechanic, mechanical=Labourer
Sad-eyed=Grave
Contrariously=In opposed directions

Compleat:
Dial=Zonnewyzer
Mechanick=handwerkman

Topics: unity/collaboration, purpose

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Boy
CONTEXT:
For indeed three such antics do not amount to a man: for Bardolph, he is white-livered
and red-faced, by the means whereof he faces it out but fights not; for Pistol, he hath a killing tongue and a quiet sword, by the means whereof he breaks words and keeps whole weapons; for Nym, he hath heard that men of few words are the best men, and therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest he should be thought a coward, but his few bad words are matched with as few good deeds, for he never broke any man’s head but his own, and that was against a post when he was drunk.

DUTCH:
Nym, die heeft wel eens gehoord, dat menschen van weinig woorden de besten zijn, en daarom verdraait hij het, ooit te bidden, opdat men hem niet voor een lafaard zou houden, maar naast zijn weinige en slechte woorden staan even weinige goede daden.

MORE:

Antic=Buffoon, practising odd gesticulations
White-livered=Cowardly (White livers used to signify cowardice. Hence lily-livered (Macbeth, 5.3) and milk-livered (King Lear, 4.2), both compounds coined by Shakespeare)
Face it out=To get through one’s business by effrontery
Scorn=To disdain, to refuse or lay aside with contempt
Words=Also in the sense of promises

Compleat:
To scorn=Verachten, verfooijen
White-livered=Een die er altijd bleek uitziet; een bleek-neus, kwaadaardig, nydig
To face out=Iemand iets in ‘t gezigt staande houden

Topics: reputation, honour, language, promise

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Canterbury
CONTEXT:
CANTERBURY
It must be so, for miracles are ceased,
And therefore we must needs admit the means
How things are perfected.
ELY
But, my good lord,
How now for mitigation of this bill
Urged by the Commons? Doth his Majesty
Incline to it or no?
CANTERBURY
He seems indifferent,
Or rather swaying more upon our part
Than cherishing th’ exhibitors against us;
For I have made an offer to his Majesty—
Upon our spiritual convocation
And in regard of causes now in hand,
Which I have opened to his Grace at large,
As touching France—to give a greater sum
Than ever at one time the clergy yet
Did to his predecessors part withal.
ELY
How did this offer seem received, my lord?
CANTERBURY
With good acceptance of his Majesty—
Save that there was not time enough to hear,
As I perceived his Grace would fain have done,
The severals and unhidden passages
Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms,
And generally to the crown and seat of France,
Derived from Edward, his great-grandfather.

DUTCH:
Zoo moet het; want der wond’ren tijd is over;
En dus, er moeten midd’len zijn, waardoor
Volkomenheid ontstaat.

MORE:

Mitigation=Alleviation, abatement of any thing painful and afflictive
Swaying=To be biased, to be directed, to move
Cherish=Promote, support
The exhibitors=Those who proposed the bill
Cause=Matter of concern, affair, business
In hand=About to do or to be done, in the state of execution
Art…theoric=Theory is based on experience
The severals and unhidden passages=the details, and the clearly established channels through which the titles passed or were derived

Compleat:
Mitigation=Verzachting, verzoeting
Cherish=Aankweeken
To have a business in hand=Iets onder handen hebben
Reason shall sway with me more than the opinion of the vulgar=De reden zal meer op my vermogen dan de waan des gemeenen volks

Topics: age/experience, justification

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Canterbury
CONTEXT:
The courses of his youth promised it not.
The breath no sooner left his father’s body
But that his wildness, mortified in him,
Seemed to die too. Yea, at that very moment
Consideration like an angel came
And whipped th’ offending Adam out of him,
Leaving his body as a paradise
T’ envelop and contain celestial spirits.
Never was such a sudden scholar made,
Never came reformation in a flood
With such a heady currance scouring faults,
Nor never Hydra-headed willfulness
So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,
As in this king

DUTCH:
Zoo plots’ling werd geen kweek’ling ooit gevormd;
Zoo, als een vloed, kwam nooit bekeering op

MORE:

Proverb: The old Adam
Proverb: As many heads as Hydra

Mortified=Struck down
The offending Adam=Innate depravity
Currance=Current
Hydra=Moster with proliferating heads
Seat=Throne

Compleat:
Hydra=Een monstreuze en fabel=achtige draak
To mortify=Dooden, tuchtigen, onderbrengen, quellen, den voet dwars zetten

Topics: learning/education, regret, good and bad

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Exeter
CONTEXT:
He’ll make your Paris Louvre shake for it,
Were it the mistress court of mighty Europe.
And be assured you’ll find a difference,
As we his subjects have in wonder found,
Between the promise of his greener days
And these he masters now. Now he weighs time
Even to the utmost grain. That you shall read
In your own losses, if he stay in France.

DUTCH:
Hij weegt zijn tijd
Thans tot het laatste grein; dit speurt gij dra,
Blijft hij in Frankrijk, in uw nederlagen.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Utmost=Most accurate, computed with absolute exactness; last
Green=Young, inexperienced, raw

Compleat:
Utmost=Uiterste
Green: (not ripe)=Onryp; (raw)=Een nieuweling

Topics: time, age/experience

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.
Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage.
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect.

DUTCH:
Nog eens gestormd, nog eens, mijn lieve vrienden!
Of stopt de bres met Englands doode strijders!

MORE:
One of the most frequently quoted lines from Shakespeare, used in the sense of ‘Take courage’, ‘Let’s go at it again’.
Breach=Gap in a fortification made by a battery

Topics: conflict, courage, adversity

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Exeter
CONTEXT:
Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt,
And anything that may not misbecome
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.
Thus says my king: an if your father’s Highness
Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his Majesty,
He’ll call you to so hot an answer of it
That caves and womby vaultages of France
Shall chide your trespass and return your mock
In second accent of his ordinance.

DUTCH:
Uittarting en verachting, hoon en spot,
En alles, wat den grooten zender niet
Onteeren kan.

MORE:

Slight regard=Scant regard, disregard
Misbecome=To suit ill, not to befit, to be unseemly in
In grant of=The act of granting or bestowing, concession, permission
Mock=Ridicule, derision, sneer
Womby=Hollow, capacious
Vaultage=Cavern
Answer=Reply to a charge
Accent=Sound of voice
Second accent=Echo
Ordinance=Artillery

Compleat:
Misbecome=Misstaan, niet wel voegen
It misbecomes him=Het misstaat hem

Topics: status, order/society, value, insult

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Dauphin
CONTEXT:
Turn head and stop pursuit, for coward dogs
Most spend their mouths when what they seem to threaten
Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,
Take up the English short, and let them know
Of what a monarchy you are the head.
Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin
As self-neglecting.

DUTCH:
Beste heer en vorst,
Geef dien gezanten kort bescheid, en toon hun,
Van welk een koninkrijk gij ‘t hoofd zijt, heer;
Want zelfmin is een minder snoode zonde
Dan zelfverzuim.

MORE:

Proverb: Cowardly dogs bark much

Turn head=turn around and stand at bay

Topics: courage, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.7
SPEAKER: Orleans
CONTEXT:
Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of a Russian bear and have their heads crushed like rotten apples. You may as well say, that’s a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.

DUTCH:
Gij kunt even goed zeggen, dat het een dappere vloo is, die haar ontbijt durft nuttigen op de lip
van een leeuw./
Het is een dappere vlo die zijn ontbijt durft te eten op de lip van een leeuw.

MORE:
Proverb: That’s a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion

Topics: courage, proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
Good God, why should they mock poor fellows thus?
The man that once did sell the lion’s skin
While the beast lived was killed with hunting him.
A many of our bodies shall no doubt
Find native graves, upon the which, I trust,
Shall witness live in brass of this day’s work.
And those that leave their valiant bones in France,
Dying like men though buried in your dunghills,
They shall be famed; for there the sun shall greet them
And draw their honours reeking up to heaven,
Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime,

DUTCH:
De man, die eens de huid des leeuws verkocht,
Toen ‘t beest nog leefde, kwam bij ‘t jagen om.

MORE:

Proverb: Sell not the bear’s skin before you have bought him (for those who promise, or dispose of a thing that is not in their Power)
Proverb: Counting chickens before they are hatched.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Ely
CONTEXT:

ELY
The strawberry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
Neighbored by fruit of baser quality;
And so the Prince obscured his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness, which, no doubt,
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
Unseen yet crescive in his faculty.
CANTERBURY
It must be so, for miracles are ceased,
And therefore we must needs admit the means
How things are perfected.

DUTCH:
De aardbezie ziet men onder netels groeien,
En onder vruchten van geringer aard
Heilzame beziën best tot rijpheid komen.

MORE:

Note: It was commonly thought that plants imbibed the virtues and faults from neighbouring plants. Sweet flowers were planted close to fruit trees to improve the flavour, but the (probably wild) strawberry – symbol of perfect righteousness in religious emblems – was considered to be the exception and would thrive in the midst of ‘evil’ neighbours without being affected.

Crescive=Growing, increasing
Faculty=Inherent power
Means=Causes
Perfected=Brought about

Compleat:
Faculty (power or virtue)=Vermogen, deugd
To perfect=Volmaaken, voltoooijen; tot volmaaktheid brengen

Topics: deceit, appearance, reason

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Fluellen
CONTEXT:
There is occasions and causes why and
wherefore in all things. I will tell you ass my
friend, Captain Gower. The rascally, scald, beggarly,
lousy, pragging knave Pistol, which you and
yourself and all the world know to be no petter than
a fellow, look you now, of no merits, he is come to
me and prings me pread and salt yesterday, look
you, and bid me eat my leek. It was in a place where
I could not breed no contention with him, but I will
be so bold as to wear it in my cap till I see him once
again, and then I will tell him a little piece of my
desires.

DUTCH:
Er is aanleidingen en oorzaken, waarom en waarvoor,
in alle dingen

MORE:

Proverb: Every why has a wherefore/There is never a why but there is a wherefore
Proverb: My stomach has struck dinnertime/twelve (rung noon)

Scald (scault, scalled)=Scabby, scurvy (scalled=afflicted with the ‘scale’ or scall)

Compleat:
Why and wherefore both translated as waarom

Topics: proverbs and idioms, reason, justification

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
Gloucester, ’tis true that we are in great danger.
The greater therefore should our courage be.
—Good morrow, brother Bedford. God almighty,
There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
Would men observingly distill it out.
For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers,
Which is both healthful and good husbandry.
Besides, they are our outward consciences
And preachers to us all, admonishing
That we should dress us fairly for our end.
Thus may we gather honey from the weed
And make a moral of the devil himself.

DUTCH:
In booze dingen schuilt een kern van goed,
Zoo slechts de mensch bedachtzaam dien er uitperst;/
Er is een geest van goedheid in slechte dingen als de mensen die er maar uit wisten te distilleren.

MORE:

Proverb: He that has an ill neighbour has oftentimes an ill morning
Proverb: There is nothing so bad in which there is not something of good (1623)
Proverb: Every cloud has a silver lining

Observingly=With close observation, attentively
Distil=To obtain or extract the essence of, also to obtain (the quintessence) by extraction or distillation (lit. and fig.)

Topics: good and bad, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Boy
CONTEXT:
They will steal anything and call it purchase. Bardolph stole a lute case, bore it twelve leagues, and sold it for three halfpence. Nym and Bardolph are sworn brothers in filching, and in Calais they stole a fire shovel. I knew by that piece of service the men would carry coals. They would have me as familiar with men’s pockets as their gloves or their handkerchers, which makes much against my manhood, if I should take from another’s pocket to put into mine, for it is plain pocketing up of wrongs. I must leave them and seek some better service. Their villainy goes against my weak stomach, and therefore I must cast it up.

DUTCH:
Zij stelen alles, wat voor de hand komt,
en dat noemen zij zaken doen

MORE:

Proverb: He will carry (bear) no coals
Proverb: To pocket up an injury (wrong)
Pocket up=To put away out of sight, (hence) conceal or leave unheeded

Purchase=Procurement (and slang for spoils)
Makes against=Goes against
Wrongs=Insults
Cast it up=Vomit it up

Topics: proverbs and idioms, honesty, offence, integrity

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.7
SPEAKER: Fluellen
CONTEXT:
KING HENRY
It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort, quite from the answer of his degree.
FLUELLEN
Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as Lucifer and Beelzebub himself, it is necessary, look your Grace, that he keep his vow and his oath. If he be perjured, see you now, his reputation is as arrant a villain and a Jack Sauce as ever his black shoe trod upon God’s ground and His earth, in my conscience, la.

DUTCH:
Al was hij een zoo goede edelman, als de tuifel het
is, als Lucifer en Pelzepup zelf, toch is het noodig, versta
uwe genade, dat hij zijn gelofte houdt en zijn eed.

MORE:

Proverb: As good a man as ever trod on shoe (neat’s) leather (as ever went on legs)
The answer of his degree=A question of rank (knights were only bound to fight with one of equal rank)

Arrant=Arch
Good=important

Compleat:
An arrant knave=Een overgegeven guit

Topics: status, promise, debt/obligation, reputation, proverbs and idioms

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Nym
CONTEXT:
NYM
Faith, I will live so long as I may, that’s the certain of it. And when I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may. That is my rest; that is the rendezvous of it.
BARDOLPH
It is certain, corporal, that he is married to Nell Quickly, and certainly she did you wrong, for you were troth-plight to her.
NYM
I cannot tell. Things must be as they may. Men may sleep, and they may have their throats about them at that time, and some say knives have edges. It must be as it may. Though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I cannot tell.

DUTCH:
Het moet gaan, zooals het wil; al is
geduld een afgejakkerde knol, voortploeteren doet het
toch.

MORE:

Rendezvous=Refuge, retreat
Troth-plight=Betrothed
Patience be a tired mare=Patience is wearing thin

Compleat:
Troth=Trouw
In troth=Ter goeder trouw

Topics: fate/destiny, patience, trust

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop, thou cruel,
Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature?
Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels,
That knew’st the very bottom of my soul,
That almost mightst have coined me into gold,
Wouldst thou have practiced on me for thy use—
May it be possible that foreign hire
Could out of thee extract one spark of evil
That might annoy my finger? ‘Tis so strange
That, though the truth of it stands off as gross
As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it.
Treason and murder ever kept together
As two yoke-devils sworn to either’s purpose,
Working so grossly in a natural cause
That admiration did not whoop at them.

DUTCH:
Het is zoo vreemd,
Dat, schoon de waarheid scherp en duid’lijk afsteek
Als wit en zwart, mijn oog ze nauw’lijks zien wil.

MORE:

Use=Advantage
Grossly=Palpably, evidently
Admiration=Astonishment
Key=Control, mastery or knowledge of the inner workings

Compleat:
Gross=Grof, plomp, onbebouwen
You grossly mistake my meaning=Gy vergist u grootelyks omtrent myn meening
Admiration=Verwondering

Topics: evidence, good and bad, deceit, truth, conspiracy, loyalty

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Pistol
CONTEXT:
Come, let’s away.—My love, give me thy lips.
Look to my chattels and my movables.
Let senses rule. The word is “Pitch and pay.”
Trust none, for oaths are straws, men’s faiths are wafer-cakes,
And Holdfast is the only dog, my duck.
Therefore, caveto be thy counselor.
Go, clear thy crystals.—Yoke-fellows in arms,
Let us to France, like horse-leeches, my boys,
To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck

DUTCH:
Een eed is stroo; geloof en -trouw zijn wafels,
En slechts „Hou vast” de ware hond, mijn duifjen

MORE:

Proverb: Pitch and pay (pay ready money) (15th century)
Proverb: Touch pot, touch penny
Proverb: Promises and pie-crusts are made to be broken (1599)
Proverb: Brag is a good dog, but holdfast is a better

Let senses rule=Be governed by prudence
Men’s faiths are wafer-cakes=Faith crumbles
Clear thy crystals=Dry your eyes (or clean your glasses (Johnson))
Look to=Look after
Caveto=Caution
Yoke-fellow=Companion

Topics: proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised, business, money, caution

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
Now, lords, for France, the enterprise whereof
Shall be to you as us, like glorious.
We doubt not of a fair and lucky war,
Since God so graciously hath brought to light
This dangerous treason lurking in our way
To hinder our beginnings. We doubt not now
But every rub is smoothèd on our way.
Then forth, dear countrymen. Let us deliver
Our puissance into the hand of God,
Putting it straight in expedition.
Cheerly to sea. The signs of war advance.
No king of England if not king of France.

DUTCH:
Nu God ons zoo genadig dit verraad
Ontsluierd heeft, dat loerde op onzen weg,
Om de’ aanvang reeds te stuiten; thans geen twijfel,
Of iedre hindernis is weggeruimd.

MORE:

Rub=Cause of difficulty, hindrance, obstacle. (Originally from the game of bowls, meaning any impediment that would deflect the bowl from its course.)
Puissance=Armed force
In expedition=Speedy progress

Compleat:
Rub (obstacle, hindrance)=Beletsel, hinderpaal
Rub (word used by way of interjection at bowls)=Zoetjes aan, met gemak

Topics: conflict, preparation

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now abed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

DUTCH:
Ons, wein’gen, ons, gelukkigen, ons, broeders;
Want wie vandaag met mij zijn bloed vergiet,
Hij zal mijn broeder zijn;

MORE:

Feast of Crispian: 25 October

Vile=Lowly born
Gentle his condition=Turn him in to a gentleman

Topics: conflict, friendship, trust, relationship

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Williams
CONTEXT:
COURT
Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which breaks yonder?
BATES
I think it be, but we have no great cause to desire the approach of day.
WILLIAMS
We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think we shall never see the end of it.—Who goes there?

DUTCH:
Wij zien daar het begin van den dag, maar zijn einde
zullen wij, denk ik, wel nimmer zien. — Wie gaat daar?

MORE:

Topics: nature, time, conflict

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Gower
CONTEXT:
Go, go. You are a counterfeit cowardly knave. Will you mock at an ancient tradition begun upon an honorable respect and worn as a memorable trophy of predeceased valour, and dare not avouch in your deeds any of your words? I have seen you gleeking and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice. You thought because he could not speak English in the native garb, he could not therefore handle an English cudgel. You find it otherwise, and henceforth let a Welsh correction teach you a good English condition. Fare you well.

DUTCH:
Wilt gij spotten over een oud gebruik, dat uit een eervolle aanleiding ontsproot en als een gedenkwaardig teeken van vroegere dapperheid gedragen wordt, en waagt gij het niet, zelfs éen uwer woorden door daden waar te maken?

MORE:

To gleek=Scoff, sneer
Schmidt:
To gall (with at)=To quiz, to scoff: “gleeking and galling at this gentleman”
Predeceased valour=Brave men who have died
Garb=Fashion
Correction=Chastisement
Condition=Disposition

Compleat:
Condition=Staat, gesteltenis
Good-conditioned=Goedaardig
Correction=Verbetering, tuchtiging, berisping
Garb=Kleeding; (carriage)=houding

Topics: betrayal, language, promise, appearance, intellect

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Westmorland
CONTEXT:
God’s will, my liege, would you and I alone,
Without more help, could fight this royal battle!

DUTCH:
Gehengde ‘t God, mijn vorst, dat gij en ik
Geheel alleen den strijd beslechten konden!

MORE:

Topics: support, conflict, strength

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
God quit you in His mercy. Hear your sentence:
You have conspired against our royal person,
Joined with an enemy proclaimed, and from his coffers
Received the golden earnest of our death,
Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,
His princes and his peers to servitude,
His subjects to oppression and contempt,
And his whole kingdom into desolation.
Touching our person, seek we no revenge,
But we our kingdom’s safety must so tender,
Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws
We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence,
Poor miserable wretches, to your death,
The taste whereof God of His mercy give
You patience to endure, and true repentance
Of all your dear offences.—Bear them hence.

DUTCH:
Hoort uw vonnis:
Gij hebt bij eede u tegen ons verbonden
Met onze’ erkenden vijand, naamt van hem
Het gouden handgeld aan voor onzen dood;

MORE:

CITED IN US LAW: To help to define “conspire”. Wright et al v United States, 108 F. 805 (5th Cir. 1901). The same court also turned to Shakespeare to help to define “murder”.

Quit=Acquit, absolve
Earnest=Handsel, part paid beforehand as a pledge, monetary pledge, down payment
Tender=Fondly

Compleat:
An earnest=Een pand, onderpand
To give in earnest=Te pande geeven

Topics: cited in law, punishment

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Constable
CONTEXT:
Oh peace, Prince Dauphin!
You are too much mistaken in this king.
Question your Grace the late ambassadors
With what great state he heard their embassy,
How well supplied with noble counselors,
How modest in exception, and withal
How terrible in constant resolution,
And you shall find his vanities forespent
Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,
Covering discretion with a coat of folly,
As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots
That shall first spring and be most delicate.

DUTCH:
Want dan erkent gij, dat zijn vroeg’re dwaasheid
De mom van den Romeinschen Brutus was,
Wijsheid bedekkend met een narrenmantel,
Gelijk tuiniers met vuil die wortels dekken,
Die teer en vroeg, voor de andren, schieten moeten.

MORE:

In Roman history, Lucius Junius Brutus pretended to be slow-witted so that he wouldn’t be regarded as a threat.
(See The Rape of Lucrece, 1594: “Brutus… Began to clothe his wit in state and pride, Burying in Lucrece’ wound his folly’s show. (…) But now he throws that shallow habit by, Wherein deep policy did him disguise And armed his long-hid wits advisedly…”)

Vanities=Empty and vain pursuit, frivolity
Forespent=Past, foregone
Discretion=wisdom
Ordure=manure

Compleat:
Vanity (unprofitableness)=Onprofytelykheid
Vanity (vain-glory)=Idele glorie
Ordure=Vuiligheid, drek, afgang
Discretion=Bescheidenheid, omzigtigheid

Topics: appearance, skill/talent, error

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